Dennis Miller: The other side of 'but'By: Dennis Miller Op-Ed ContributorOctober 16, 2009

I guess I've been hearing it for years now as the country has slid into knee-jerk relativism. Till now though, it's merely been an equivocating grandfather clock in the background, metronomic, at worst nettlesome. It was at the beginning of l'affaire Polanski, though, that I realized how much I've come to detest the word "but."

One liberal pundit or another (banality = interchangeability) was bleating on and on, and I actually heard the words "what Roman Polanski did was wrong but ..." and it hit me like an air horn in a Trappist monastery. With a simple wave of the conjunctive wand, we now believe that we can explain away absolutely anything!

I know man does not live by declarative sentences alone, although you can certainly do a lot worse than Hemingway. Purely and simply, there are certain times in life that you have to pull up short of the logic abyss …

I am sick of hearing your irritating speech patterns and your goofy-looking face, and then the sickening boot-licking sycophants in the mainstream news media slobbering over your every pronouncement like you are the Saviour of all humanity.

Sincerely,

The Citizens of the United States of America.

P.S. Now that you are making some extra bucks, how about getting that stupid mole removed from your face?

For my entire adult life, I have worked and struggled and sacrificed most of my dreams to provide for my family, and to make sure each one received medical care as they needed it. I have foregone opportunities because I could not afford to take the chance of not having health insurance, for even a short while.

Now, with my children grown and able to take care of themselves, I am being asked, no, told that I must now support a new, more "socially just" system that will provide health insurance to millions of people who do not take personal responsibility in their lives, who do not, and will not make the necessary sacrifices to take care of themselves and their families. I must accept a lower standard of care, and outrageously confiscatory taxes, in order to provide this "free" service to millions of people, a huge portion of whom are of virtually no value to society.

I wonder why, and what is the morality behind it, that I must pay for the health care of other peop…

Each generation, it seems, has to learn first hand of the depth of corruption of the Democratic party. After years of bitching and complaining, name-calling and slander about the Republican party and it's leadership, the Democrats have finally convinced millions of otherwise apathetic young voters to come out to the polls and end the Republican corruption. Well, congratulations to you, young voters. You have gotten your wish. Who knows how long this brave new socialist world will last? You have believed in a saviour, and now he (with the assistance of his co-conspirators, thugs, demagogues, criminals, liars, thieves, and henchmen) is busy delivering on his promises, by stealing money from people who work, and giving it to his own political supporters.

This change in government is not just switching from Republican to Democratic leadership as it has been in the past; since the Democratic party has become dominated by those whom we used to call Communists, Socialists, Fascists, …

"How dreadful are the curses which Mohammedanism lays on its votaries!

Besides the fanatical frenzy, which is as dangerous in a man as hydrophobia in a dog, there is this fearful fatalistic apathy. The effects are apparent in many countries. Improvident habits, slovenly systems of agriculture, sluggish methods of commerce, and insecurity of property exist wherever the followers of the Prophet rule or live.

A degraded sensualism deprives this life of its grace and refinement; the next of its dignity and sanctity.

The fact that in Mohammedan law every woman must belong to some man as his absolute property, either as a child, a wife, or a concubine, must delay the final extinction of slavery until the faith of Islam has ceased to be a great power among men.

Individual Moslems may show splendid qualities - but the influence of the religion paralyses the social development of those who follow it.

If you think that increasing taxes on "the rich" is not going to affect you, then you are going to be disappointed.

Let me give you a lesson in very basic economics. Don't worry, there is no mathematics involved, just clear, logical thinking.

1. Why are you poor?2. Why are the rich rich?3. Who pays the rich man's taxes?4. Why does raising taxes on the wealthy hurt you, the poor?

1. Why are you poor?You are poor for one or more of the following reasons: A) You are stupid. B) You are ignorant. C) You are smart (capable), but make stupid and/or ignorant decisions. D) You are smart, but made stupid and/or ignorant decisions. E) "The Man", or "Whitey" is keeping you down. F) Your parents fucked up and damaged you for life, rendering you incapable of overcoming your situation, essentially mentally and socially retarded. G) You had some or a lot of bad luck.

2. Why are the rich rich?The rich, successful, wealthy, or whatever you want to call them are …

Why are wealthy people always vilified? They aren't all evil, any more than all members of any particular group are evil. The rich, in our country, usually got rich because they did something great, and America allows people to be rewarded for doing great things. (It used to, anyway).

Rich people are generally smart, and very good with managing their money.

I never had a good job that was owned by a poor person. I did work for a less than rich person once, and during that time I always had to worry about first, getting a paycheck, and then, my paycheck clearing the bank.

Just like I don't want to go to a doctor who drives a crappy old car and lives in a cheap apartment, I do not want to work for anyone who is not personally rich. Wealth is a sign of competence. It makes me comfortable to know that the people who issue me my paycheck know exactly what they are doing, and that I can count on continued income, and always getting paid for the work I do.

When did Doctors become the bad guys? President Fuck Up says that doctors are performing unnecessary procedures just to collect higher reimbursements from insurance companies. What a laugh! Fraud does indeed occur, but when it does, it is big news. What that means is that it is extremely rare.

And, what is so terrible about health insurance as it now stands? My health insurance has enabled me to be able to afford to save the lives of my children and wife, and myself, on numerous occasions. The insurance companies are good, not bad.

The fact that some people have no insurance is what is bad. This can be remedied by congress, but they want to take a sledge hammer to fix something that only takes a quarter of a turn with a screwdriver. They want to dismantle the entire system of health care, including how doctors perform their jobs, and how much they can be paid, when the market place can handle that much more efficiently than any government regulation could.

Freedom includes the right to earn and keep your own money. People who work hard should be allowed to keep their money. That, indeed, is the American dream, not owning a house and driving a big car. The right to put yourself into a better position than you started out, by hard work, saving, sacrificing, and careful planning.

My parents had a better life than their parents, and I had a better life than my parents. This was accomplished with hard work (and as always, some good luck). But we were allowed to keep nearly all of what we earned. Now, with all the massive spending of the new federal government, under the administration of President Fuck Up and the Chicago mob, taxes will only go up. They propose new taxes on everything. They are even proposing taxing the air we breathe! Carbon dioxide is going to be taxed! That is absurd. CO2 is a natural gas that is generated whenever anything burns, and by all living animals as they breathe. CO2 is used by plants and converted ba…

Global whining alarmists are touting that the consensus of scientists around the world agrees that the average global temperature is increasing. So what? Big deal. The earth’s temperature has been fluctuating for billions of years. They claim that human production of CO2 is causing it. Maybe it is true, but maybe it isn’t.

A consensus does not make a scientific fact. In the 1700s and 1800s, the vast consensus of scientists agreed that Negroes (black Africans) were an inferior race of humans. In the 1900s, the consensus of German scientists, along with many others around the world, agreed that Jews were an inferior race. These scientific “conclusions” were used to justify slavery and mass murder.

Carl Sagan, a scientist, made a statement regarding extraordinary claims: “Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence.” There has been no “extraordinary evidence” regarding global whining, just computer models. These computer models, when fed information from the past several…

The Democrats and President Obama are trying to institute health care reform. They will create such a fucked-up mess that everyone will pay more and suffer more. Health care will benefit only people who are not very ill.

The blame lies, in my opinion, with the REPUBLICANS. For several years, they had virtual control of the legislative and executive branches of government. Everybody who thinks knows that health care is in need of reform. Republican sponsored reform would have been fucked-up too, but it would have been better than the abortion being sponsored by the Democrats now. When they had the opportunity, the Republicans simply ignored the problem. Too expensive, so we will just ignore it.

Every thinking person knows that in politics, as in everything else in life, the pendulum swings back and forth. The Republicans could not hold on to power indefinitely, so they should have addressed this issue when they had the chance.

There is another form of temptation, even more fraught with danger. This is the disease of curiosity... It is this which drives us to try and discover the secrets of nature, those secrets which are beyond our understanding, which can avail us nothing and which man should not wish to learn.

- St. Augustine

***10/5/2013 - Note: this is probably a misquote, for the purpose of defaming St. Augustine. I published it without any research as to its veracity, and I regret it. He is a revered figure in Christianity and western culture, and whether we subscribe to his philosophy and views or not, everyone deserves at least to be described accurately. - James Carr.

Obvious to people who are good with money, but for the rest of us, this is the best advice I've heard in a long time:

... "I realize $400 seems like a lot of money right now, but it’s not the end of the world. Get on a written, monthly budget, and give every dollar you make a name on paper before the month begins. You’ll have to pay some Stupid Tax, but you can take care of this in no time if you stop eating out for a while and have a monster, blow-out garage sale this weekend. Close the account, cut that card into tiny, little pieces, and never go back into debt again!" ...

Here's another great piece of advice I overheard years ago: "If you don't save money, you're stupid!"

I take my title from the ridiculously titled book, "The Republican War on Science".

Government policy decisions often, if not always, have a moral component. Intellectuals and pseudo-intellectuals (who are very influentual in the Democrat party) try very hard to remove morality from any consideration of the value of a proposed policy...unless, of course, the moral position supports their idea.

As an atheist, I do not believe there is an absolute standard of morality dictated by an omnipotent supernatural being. So what am I talking about? Morality is whatever we say it is, right? Well, yes. The important thing that these "intellectuals" seem to forget is that we, as a society, do say what morality is.

Even if the ultimate source of our western (or American at least) morality is ultimately from Judeo-Christian influences, the fact remains that we have a moral code. Some aspects of this moral code are in dispute, some are under attack; however, there is still an u…

Declining the invitation to endorse a pre-determined policy of releasing trained terrorists into the United States

By email (to the Counterterrorism Division) and by regular mail:

The Honorable Eric H. Holder, Jr.

Attorney General of the United StatesUnited States Department of Justice950 Pennsylvania Avenue, NWWashington, D.C. 20530-0001

Dear Attorney General Holder:

This letter is respectfully submitted to inform you that I must decline the invitation to participate in the May 4 roundtable meeting the President’s Task Force on Detention Policy is convening with current and former prosecutors involved in international terrorism cases. An invitation was extended to me by trial lawyers from the Counterterrorism Section, who are members of the Task Force, which you are leading.

The invitation email (of April 14) indicates that the meeting is part of an ongoing effort to identify lawful policies on the detention and disposition of alien enemy combatants -- or what the Department now calls “i…

Great review. Red Eye is my favorite television show. Watching it is addictive.

‘Red Eye’ at 500by Matt Patterson

Is there a stranger show on television than “Red Eye w/ Greg Gutfeld“?

Careening between train wreck and brilliance (often within the same five minute segment), “Red Eye” has been providing necrophilia jokes and toilet humor alongside serious political commentary and biting social satire for over two years now. In fact, “Red Eye,” which airs nightly at 3:00 am on Fox News, recently celebrated its 500th show. In honor of this momentous occasion, I would like to address those poor unfortunate viewers who have yet to tune in, and inform them why they need to start warming up their TiVos like, NOW! people.

The ringleader is Greg Gutfeld, former editor of Maxim U.K and Men’s Health magazines. His cohorts include Bill Schulz (the best side-kick since Andy Richter) and droll and dreary ombudsman Andy Levy. This crew is rounded out nightly by a rotating rogue’s gallery of bloggers,…

Washington, DC - Congress is considering sweeping legislation that will provide new benefits for many Americans.

The Americans With No Abilities Act (AWNAA) is being hailed as a major legislative goal by advocates of the millions of Americans who lack any real skills or ambition.

'Roughly 50 percent of Americans do not possess the competence and drive necessary to carve out a meaningful role for themselves in society,' said California Senator Barbara Boxer. 'We can no longer stand by and allow People of Inability to be ridiculed and passed over. With this legislation, employers will no longer be able to grant special favors to a small group of workers, simply because they have some idea of what they are doing.'

In a Capitol Hill press conference, House Majority Leader Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid pointed to the success of the U.S. Postal Service, which has a long-standing policy of providing opportunity without regard to performance Approximately …

"On this day, we gather because we have chosen hope over fear, unity of purpose over conflict and discord." - Barack Hussein Obama, January 20, 2009

From the Wall Street Journal:

FEBRUARY 13, 2009

Obama's Rhetoric Is the Real 'Catastrophe'

By BRADLEY R. SCHILLERPresident Barack Obama has turned fearmongering into an art form. He has repeatedly raised the specter of another Great Depression. First, he did so to win votes in the November election. He has done so again recently to sway congressional votes for his stimulus package.

In his remarks, every gloomy statistic on the economy becomes a harbinger of doom. As he tells it, today's economy is the worst since the Great Depression. Without his Recovery and Reinvestment Act, he says, the economy will fall back into that abyss and may never recover.

This fearmongering may be good politics, but it is bad history and bad economics. It is bad history because our current economic woes don't come close to those of the …

Judge Obama on Performance AloneLet's not celebrate more ordinary speeches.

By JUAN WILLIAMS

JANUARY 20, 2009, 11:31 P.M. ET

With the noon sun high over the U.S. Capitol, Barack Obama yesterday took the oath of office to become president of the United States. On one level, it was a simple matter of political process -- the symbolic transfer of power. Yet words alone cannot convey its meaning.

The calloused hands of slaves, the voices of abolitionists, the hearts of generations who trusted in the naïve promise that any child can become president, will find some reward in a moment that was hard to imagine last year, much less 50 years ago. Our history, so marred by the sin of slavery, has come to the day when a man that an old segregationist would have described as "tea-colored" -- the child of a white woman and an African immigrant, who identifies as a member of the long oppressed and despised black minority -- was chosen …

Perhaps you remember the saying, "The only thing worse than not getting what you want, is getting what you want."

I have observed much celebration, happiness, expressions of satisfaction and general euphoria since the inauguration of Barack Hussein Obama yesterday, as the 44th President of the United States of America, along with some extremely low-class, rude behaviour toward the outgoing President. These incidents of disrespect have only served to show what low class assholes Obama supporters, and Democrats in general are.

I believe that I will be one of the few people who are pleased during the Obama presidency, because I expect absolute disaster. With such low expectations, I can only be pleasantly surprised when he makes some policy decision that I like. As President, he can no longer evade making decisions. This will cause dissatisfaction among the various factions who support him. Making decisions …

We should have never let these barbaric, cruel, evil muslims into our country. I say it's time to round them all up. I blame this on the election of Barack Hussein Obama.

Protester Calls for Jews to 'Go Back to the Oven' at Anti-Israel DemonstrationWednesday, January 07, 2009Fox News

Like many other protests of Israel's campaign in Gaza, this one ended badly — police had to cool an ugly fight between supporters of Israel and Gaza, breaking up the warring sides as their screaming and chanting threatened to turn into something worse.

But some protesters at this rally in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., took their rhetoric a step further, calling for the extermination of Israel — and of Jews.

Separated by battle lines and a stream of rush-hour traffic outside a federal courthouse last week, at least 200 pro-Palestinian demonstrators faced off against a smaller crowd of Israel supporters.

Most of the chants were run-of-the-mill; men and women waving Palestinian flags called Israel'…

European Jews Attacked in Response to Gaza ConflictTuesday, January 06, 2009

Associated Press

PARIS - Signs are mounting that the conflict in Gaza is starting to spill over into violence in Europe's towns and cities, with assaults against Jews and arson attacks on Jewish congregations in France, Sweden and Britain.

Assailants rammed a burning car into the gates of a synagogue in Toulouse, in southwest France, on Monday night. A Jewish congregation in Helsingborg, in southern Sweden, also was attacked Monday night by someone who "broke a window and threw in something that was burning," said police spokesman Leif Nilsson. Neighbors alerted rescue services before the fire took hold.

Someone also started a blaze outside the premises last week. And on Sunday slogans including "murderers ... You broke the cease-fire" and "don't subject Palestine to ethnic cleansing" were daubed o…